Page 1: Introduction. Page 2: Completed modifications. Page 3: The 7AGE and its upgrade stages. Page 4: Planned modifications. Page 5: Build diary. Page 6: Advice to platform owners and acknowledgements.Latest updates (as I get them, I'll post them): 8/21/10: Wheels are installed, as are shocks and mounts. The ride's much improved, that terrifying lean has gone away and it's nothing but grip. I do feel the weight of the wheels in the steering and while accelerating and braking but these are 13.9 lbs apiece and apparently the stock steelies weighed around 20 apiece. I've just been spoiled by the 9.8 lb 14" ones, I guess. Still a net gain. The ride is surprisingly smooth for such big wheels and low-profile tires and (while the car doesn't sit perfectly flush) it sits flush enough that I rub a little with a 300-pound passenger on rough surfaces and not at all when it's just me. I can live with that.8/17/10: CAI is installed. This wasn't straightforward and required moving the coolant reservoir tank over one bolt and the battery tray being put back in backwards. Nevertheless, although the battery's at a funky angle, the intake is stable and the surge in midrange power and torque is fantastic. I didn't have much of a chance to play but with 300 pounds of passenger in the car it'll pull just as hard (a little harder) than it used to when I was the only occupant. The butt dyno is very impressed...8/16/10: There's a lot of stuff on order. 17" wheels, Tokico Blues, a replacement LC-1 sensor pigtail, a GM coolant temp sensor and bung, piping and clamps to build my own CAI, a new endlink, a new passenger side mirror, Caldina foglights and a generic foglight switch. Already installed the new black taillights. Their bottom trim strip is chromed plastic, lending some silver to the back end that sadly doesn't match the color of the below-fascia lip--so I bought some chrome vinyl tape to finish adding that trim effect in a manner dramatically easier and cheaper than trying to repaint. I have some Krylon Fusion paint for the rear panel and as soon as I can take the time off the road to remove that piece I'll get cracking. All the parts for the CAI should arrive later today so (with the help of a DIY from a ToyotaNation mod) I ought to be able to hit the road tomorrow with an entirely new intake setup and end the week with not only a new nonbroken suspension but a little more power and a little more bling. Pictures will of course follow as soon as I'm done with the outside, it'd be a little pointless otherwise.Now onto the lousy news.While Jason at PSI Tuning, formerly of Horsepower Freaks, is still more than willing to see this project through with me, right now they have 29 cars in the shop and I'm on a waiting list. He offered to give me a referral to other garages but after a bit of consideration I realized that not only do I trust him, his crew, and his work (if they can send Lamborghini owners away delighted, if their shop cars keep winning awards, if the guy with a 3K beater gets just as much thoughtful involvement as the guys dropping 10K in labor alone into their 150K luxury cars, if what they've done so far holds up so well--seats, shift kit, front shock cutwork, wideband installation, duplicate sensor routing--) but that another couple months is nothing (after this long) to make sure it's done by people I feel completely comfortable leaving my car with for a week or two.We're going to touch base again on Wednesday after one of his gurus has had the chance to read over the Toyotanation thread and assess the state of the project. I may try to make time just for the Megasquirt to be installed as a fuel controller and let it run / learn the 7AFE for a couple months so I can get familiar with the software and ensure that I'm comfortable with the way it works. This would mean that when it was time for the 7AGE to first-fire just the rev limiter would be raised and injector settings changed. (Would also considerably cut down on time between dropoff and pickup.) I'll keep this page posted.8/3/10: All the other trigger wheels are either hilariously too big or hilariously too small. The best bet may be to let a machine shop rotation-balance and lighten the existing toothed wheel because it really is the perfect size for that oddball crank pulley. Financially, checks have apparently been written as of late last week and it should be any time now that things happen. Of course I've thought that before. The big news is that I installed black bumper lights and projector-style lights, see page 2 for a picture of those. I haven't seen light output yet but from testing and from an artistic perspective they look bloody fantastic in both appearance and performance.6/26/10: We fabbed up a trigger wheel and have all the mounting hardware, special-ordered from McMaster-Carr. Unfortunately, the trigger wheel is heavy and may be off balance--for what DIYAutotune wants for an adjustable one, it's a better bargain. I also had the chance to work on the wideband issue--the sensor pigtail is fried and the sensor was bad anyway as apparently one's not supposed to leave it in the exhaust stream without being powered and that's the way it's been since the very beginning. Well, a new pigtail and sensor for the LC-1 is about $75, it goes on the repair list. The one real mod I've done in the intervening time was properly build the wiring for the twin horns. Now instead of trying to run two gigantic high-current horns off a single piezo-speaker output I have a separate 15A fuse in line with a relay that triggers from the horn signal and feeds battery power straight to the blowers. Granted the horn aim is still kind of funny but they're a lot more reliable and a lot louder and I still only use them maybe once a month in a bad month. I also managed to hit a deer, ruining my hood and requiring me to replace it with a junkyard one, which is at least the same color as the car if a bit more scuffed. No collision coverage = home repairs. I also need a new AC fan motor/shroud assembly. Things are still tight, I've been working for the US Census Bureau and between part-timing that and unemployment there's not been a lot left for the car. On the bright side, I do have a working laptop again that will be fine for car control. Expect big things to happen soon, the estate (long mentioned, short on resolution) has actually been settled and the attorney is in the process of cutting checks. There should be enough to get this project done, finally.1/23/10: Still no progress. It's been the rainy season. Now that the weather's back up in the 50s and 60s already I may head over there one of these weekends and borrow the jackstands to at least connect back up the O2 sensor. When I get a real job again I'll pick up the coolant piping, a smaller trigger wheel for EDIS so it'll actually fit properly on that tiny crank pulley, and a GM temp sensor and a bit of piping with the appropriate bung in it to put in the lower radiator hose. I still need to sit down and start drawing and figure out the normal coolant flow and if the 4AG flow was originally reversed (but the flow direction is reversed when using the piping scheme referenced below) exactly what goes where when. The alternator's still making noise despite a new belt (the old one spontaneously disintegrated, down to 2 rows and upside down on the pulley) so I may have to get a new one for the swap too.11/15/09: It's been a long and stormy ride. I acquired and sold a 1973 Buick Riviera as daily transportation (that turned into a hell-project on its own), gained and lost a girlfriend I shouldn't've had in the first place, and now I'm back around the holidays with more holiday job loss and some more progress made on the 7AGE. I'm working with my father-in-law, an ex-diesel mechanic and general handyman/hotrodder/fabricator, and we've already uncovered a few interesting fitment issues. I've decided to go EDIS for the ignition and set up the car such that the Megasquirt system is wired together and capable of running the 7AFE's fuel before I do the swap. That way the stock ECU can handle the spark for now, the EDIS computer will handle the spark at first on the 7AGE, and it'll give me time to test and tune and tweak and be very familiar with things like starting parameters and tuning, developed on an engine that does run to begin with, before we go into the wild blue yonder with the 7AGE. Going back and looking at pictures of the pistons, I'm pretty sure Archie used the 7AFE pistons. This would give the 7AGE a compression ratio of 8, maybe 9. Not so good for power, but it would make turbocharging it a great deal less expensive (without getting forged low-comp pistons etc etc.) Removing the distributor from the 4AGE head left a great gaping hole. The drive gear seemed to be fixed in place and not floating on the top of the pin, so Chris fabricated a block-off plate that bolts to the existing holes. This is also where a top alternator bracket will have to anchor--that was made from a flat piece of plate with a few interesting bends and a bit of tubing as a spacer welded to it. Coolant flow is going to be an issue as well, with the placement of the water pump on the 4AG head and thermostat housing on the other side, I'll have to get some stainless steel tubing to take the top radiator hose across the front side of the engine, make an angled bend by the passenger headlight, and run hose back and over the cruise control to the coolant passage. The water pump will need to have a stainless steel segment, vibration-insulated by an initial hose segment, running along the back of the block just under the head, make a 90 degree right, tab-bolt to the thermostat housing, and run pretty much straight to where the lower hose is now. Finding a way to mount the EDIS is also going to be a challenge, the wheel is too small or too large or too something or other at the stock Ford size. diyautotune.com sells smaller 4" wheels which are slotted such that they might actually bolt to the crank pulley, but we'll still have to make a bracket that mounts to the bolts underneath where the timing cover should be and angles out to hold the sensor. It won't be pretty but it should be possible. Right now the project's more or less on hold--I need to get a job again, then get some piping and some bends, start mocking up coolant routing on the 7AG. I also need to get a GM coolant temp sensor and a bung and some pipe so I can have a dedicated temp sensor for Megasquirt. After that's all in place, I'll see if I can repair the wiring to the wideband O2 and then get Megasquirt in and wired. At first, it'll be outputting exactly nothing until I've seen the actual sensor feedback in action and had a chance to play with it, then (when I feel like I know what I'm doing) I'll go back in and switch the fuel injectors over to Megasquirt control. From there, test and tune throughout the winter sporadically and work on getting the 7AG prepped for installation in the spring/summer. For the first time since starting this project, I believe I"ve collected enough knowledge and been able to get enough help such that swapping the engine only requires time to work out the small snags and it CAN actually be done in a driveway with the right tools and the right people helping out. 9/26/08: Mass transportation is not the solution. It's a project-in-the-garage acceptable answer, much better than buying a beater, but when I have to get up at 6 to get to work by 9, three-quarters asleep from riding the Max completely through Portland, it's not really worth it. Driving to work gets me awake and alert and I get an extra hour of sleep. The H4 headlight on the driver's side was very improperly aimed and has no aiming adjustments--I wound up getting an acceptable aim by re-inserting it into the frame such that the top screw wasn't in the frame hole but sitting directly (and surprisingly snugly) behind it. I thought of removing that top screw, but that would leave the entire assembly wobbly through about 20 degrees of rotation with no way to effectively secure it. This way the driver's light throws a little too high but it's vastly better than unusably low. For reference, I used to be using 9005 or 9010 bulbs in the low-beam sockets and had them adjusted to point straight ahead (caps in the headlights over the bulb tips means I wasn't blinding anybody) and THAT light output for visibility--with unusably-angled high beams--is about equivalent to the view I have now with stock bulbs and stock angles. I'm pretty impressed overall. However, with the new aim comes another new problem. This leaves an unsightly gap between the corner marker and the headlight, and as the markers were made for a bigger socket than the 194, rain gets in. I had about an inch of standing water in it. Once the residual moisture dries out, I'll seal up the socket gap with electrical tape or try to find out the kind of bulb and socket actually used. Did I mention that with the new aim, there's no way to screw the marker into the headlight and there's actually nothing holding it to the car save an ill-fitting socket? I have to find some way to correct that. Over the weekend I may also try the one-screw-off approach to the passenger light to see what happens. I also had some brake work done--warped rotors and a stuck caliper made for fascinating shuddering. Stopping is much improved. Next is upper mounts, an alignment, some sound deadening--the road noise is absolutely horrid--and then the fun stuff can start back up. I'm maybe a week or so away from being hired on as a full-timer instead of a part-timer and plan to try my best to get a deserved raise then. My financial details are outside the scope of this build diary, but suffice to say that under the current scheme I may only have about two hundred bucks a month that's not allocated to services, rent, transportation (gas & bus pass for the Spousal Unit), or food. This has to be entertainment and maintenance...two frequently-conflicting needs.9/1/08: Replaced plugs again due to pinging, Seafoamed extensively--the vac booster works better than the PCV hose--replaced dizzy cap, and replaced headlights. A friend sent me his old set of Euro-spec H4 lights & corner markers, and most of the weekend had to be spent wiring relays. FYI, Toyota uses a switched ground for the high-beams and a switched positive for the low-beams, this requires a bit of creativity. Switch a relay via the low-beam wiring, run the high-beam to the switched circuit in reverse, run the low-beam to the H4 pigtail off the 87a output (always on) and high beam off the 87 switched output. Those headlights also have the marker lights as 194 sockets in the headlamps themselves--I spliced into the markers and added the headlamp socket as a marker as well. Now all I need is a few new clear 194s, as (due to availablity and budget) the 2 in the markers are blue and only one in the headlamps is functional. I was originally planning to have the markers act as turn signals as well (JDM/Phillipines/Euro style) but got that nixed by spousal concerns about police attention. I reused the old grill, the new one had an overbite and didn't look good at all. Now there's a slight gap between the edges of the lights and the grill, but it doesn't really detract from the look enough to be bothered about...there's no aim adjustment, so night driving may become interesting. I'm also running tires at higher pressure (40 PSI) to try and get mileage back. Handling is much improved, mileage is up about 1-2 mpg. All the mounts are in, acceleration is still good, I may've ripped the lining out of the transmission mount due to improperly cleaning it. I'll get photograps of the new headlights when I get the chance. Still recovering from 6 months of no income and many bills...little things, little things. Everything's in good shape now, except the known issues, next up to replace is the aging pillow ball mounts. They're cracking badly and it would only be about $70 more to get the Tein adjustables. After that, get very angry about yet ANOTHER CV shaft replacement (I had to get the transmission seals replaced!) and it'll be time to fix the wideband, get to work redoing the megasquirt maps, do something to quiet the ride, and start prepping for the swap. *Crosses fingers* This may be materially helped by the fact I can take the bus and train to work. Not driving 60 miles a day will save a LOT toward the project...6/16/08: Replaced rotor, replaced CV half-shaft, fixed hood due to a low-speed collision (lady stopped after starting at a red light, turns out that the results of (Corolla Durango) * 3 MPH = bashed-in hood, minorly bent radiator support, and stuck latch--but nothing that couldn't be fixed by 10 minutes work with a rock and a wrecking bar. Latch works, hood is straight, frame's fine, just dented. I also spent the weekend replacing three of the four motor mounts. After ordering some 60-shore urethane compound from McMaster-Carr, I finally got around to applying it to the spare junked set of mounts I bought a couple years ago for $20 in shipping. I'm kind of proud of this, as I did 95% of the mechanical work and only broke the bolts holding the cruise control bracket to the frame, a couple underbody-cover retention bolts, and the two upper radiator fan bolts. Road salt and rust strike again! Idle feels like sitting in a paint mixer now, but only at 500-600 RPMs and usually she idles at 750 or so. Throttle response is MUCH improved, except I can't figure out how to drop the back mount out. That and the fuel filter will have to wait for a professional. I found out that the 7AFE and 4AGE ECU outputs and acknowledgements from the coil are identical, so the 7AFE would run timing OK on the 7AGE. I have a new job starting tomorrow at about double what pizza was bringing in, so once I get a bit more out of debt the 7AGE swap will probably be back up and running active.4/2/08: Work hasn't come through for me, I'm delivering pizzas fulltime and barely scraping by. Based on a grinding noise, I thought my wheel bearings were going bad, although one of the front wheels already had a bearing replaced at 90K, but the mechanics from Kis Japanese Engine who drove it reported no issues save a broken swaybar endlink. I've been going over a lot of speedbumps and steeply-angled driveways for this job, as one might imagine, and it's taken its toll on the underside. Enough paint and metal has been scraped off the front swaybar to make a noticable flat spot on the bar, the resonator is dented, the flexpipe shows initial signs of being frayed/torn on the header side, there's worn shiny spots on the midpipe and of course the back of the muffler is being slowly ground down and the tip keeps getting banged a little flatter every time I hit a steep driveway. My shocks are still unadjustable, although I believe I've figured out why--these were the first inserts that the Torque Freaks guys had ever installed and it's possible they may have used an impact wrench on the top adjuster-mounting nut, thereby destroying the adjusting mechanism. No fix for this but a rebuild at ~$140 per shock and who knows how much downtime? My alternator bearings are beginning to make noise, I still have to get around to doing cap & rotor (much less wash the car, it's been several months now), and I owe 4K in taxes from this and last year. It may be a while until the swap can happen.2/18/08: Gas damper kit installed, reviewed at http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2193186#post2193186 . Pictures updated, planned mods page updated slightly.2/17/08: Photos of the new black/silver seat covers have been added to the interior page, replacing the previous photo of the dragon seat cover. The new covers look snazzy, and I have a writeup / review of them at Toyotanation. http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=230845 . Look for a couple pictures of the hood gas strut conversion to come in a couple days.2/9/08: General update, as it's been a long time since posting anything. I've changed PCV, plugs and wires, timing belt and water pump, replaced the 185 degree thermostat with a 165 degree thermostat, run over something in the road hard enough to dent a frame rail and rip the wires out of the wideband O2 sensor, installed tire chains for the first, second, and third time, had them break on me after 80 miles of 8% grades, and replaced them with tire cables instead. I still need to get a power steering fluid and brake fluid flush (dirt and age, respectively). One horn is dying, the other dead and the cooling fan doesn't turn on. (May just be the relay, but I need to look at this in more detail) The headlight situation is continuing to annoy me--after adjusting the headlights to where they SHOULD be aimed, light output is low. I'm going to bite the bullet and get some relatively cheap rebased HID bulbs and see if that will give me acceptable output without glare--this is about my only option for more light. The projector retrofit places that are still around won't retrofit projectors into aftermarket headlights and the stock headlights are completely unsuitable for conversion anyway, not to mention the aftermarket projector halogen lights are tacky and not spousally approved in the slightest. I have fitted leather seat covers on order, as well as a gas hood conversion--and my latest suspension plan is to save for coilovers so I can raise the vehicle back up to the stock height. The low muffler and even lower front swaybar are hitting almost EVERYTHING. Still no updates on the timing of the engine swap--as usual, projected finances change with adding and removing of job sites and it's time for all my company's contracts to go up for bid. I have enough to get us through this month, pay bills, pay off the last of last year's tax loan, and perhaps a bit of maintenance but the outlook beyond that is uncertain. More updates as events warrant, probably when I get the seat covers and gas hood rod installed. Ah, the woes of being broke and putting 30K miles on my car in a year.11/12/07: Jason--now of PSI Tuning, as TorqueFreaks is no more--has set up the Innovate LC-1 wideband (making a channel in the frame rail so the wiring wouldn't be the lowest point on the car)
